The Arrival
by Lady Mondegreen
Summary: They were Lydecker's children from the start.


arrival

Disclaimer: It's all James Cameron's, please don't sue for my AOL .50 computer.  
A/N: I'm sort of taking a break from my other series.  
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He paced, smoking a cigarette, something he hadn't done in ten years. Anna had made him quit before they were married. He half-smiled sadly at the thought of his wife. He would never see her again. The death he could live with, but not his last image of her. _No, not Anna, her body, _as his therapist told him. Bloody and torn on their bedroom floor, she had fought long and hard- and look where she was now. Deck continued to pace. Of course he didn't want to be in the room when it happened, with the messy parts and screaming girl. But he still worried about everything that could go wrong and hoped against hope like a normal first-time father. The child wouldn't be his biologically, but what the hell did that matter? He would make this baby even more perfect, and the others after it. They wouldn't love him, but he wanted, someday, for them to feel a pride and trust for what they could do and how they had gotten there. It wasn't a normal rosy dream of family, but they weren't normal children. And even though he and Anna had never gotten to have children (he'd wanted to wait until he had a stable position in his work, and she in hers), they were all a little hers and his. Certain characteristics he'd slipped into their gene plans, pulled rank to keep techs from checking anything with Renfro. And the first would be here in a few minutes.  
  
Colonel Lydecker?  
One of the doctors poked her head out from the door.  
It's done. If you'd like to see it, grab a coat from a tech and ask for nursery #5.   
Lydecker nodded. He walked swiftly to the nursery, pulling on a sterile lab coat and gloves. The tiny, wrapped form of a baby rested in an artficially heated bassinet. It squinted at him and waved a minute fist in the air. Lydecker glanced at the report for the sex, the smiled proudly down at the infant. Checking to make sure no one was watching, he reached in and lifted up the baby. Jesus Christ, you're heavy. he muttered. 8 lbs, 9 oz., 20 in., X-5 599, M., Caucasian, read the chart. He still wanted to feel that his work was real, solid, pliable human infant. The baby gurgled and opened his eyes. _Blue, like mine, _Deck thought. Hair was his color, too.   
He stroked the baby's hair thoughtfully for a moment. Then he heard the door whoosh open and hurriedly set him down. Lillith Renfro strode in, preening.   
Lovely, isn't he? Why he's pratically perfect in every way.  
she crowed in a singsong voice. Deck stood stiffly at the farmiliar chill he got when she spoke like that. She reached in and picked up the child, turning him over and pulling down the blanket to see the barcode.  
She flashed a grin at Lydecker. But the infant, dismayed at being taken from his warm bed and flipped like a rag doll, began to wail. Renfro ignored it.  
You should put him back. Deck didn't know why he said it, he just had to.  
She gave him a funny look and began to inspect the baby's eyes by pulling up the lids. The infant wailed louder.  
Put him back. Deck said, quietly but intensely.  
She paid him no mind and began to bend the baby's arms and legs, holding him up in the light. The baby screamed, the most plainative sound, reverberating off the gleaming white walls and into Deck's mind.  
Stop it! He screamed suddenly. She whirled around, the baby subdued by the sudden sound for a moment. She glared at him, and Deck minded she could kick him off the project now if she wanted.  
His bones are the density of normal infants, if he were fracture something, it would throw sixty-million out the window. He tensed, waiting to see if she'd buy it. To his incredible relief, Renfro nodded and placed the baby back in his bassinett.   
I see. I'll be in touch Deck, let me know when the first blood cultures get back.   
She turned on her heel and left.   
Deck looked at the baby one more, and reached out his hand to stroke his head. A tiny hand came up and gripped his finger, the baby making contented noises in the crib. Deck smiled, but pulled his hand away and began to leave. He had to check for the next arrival, his son would have a sibling soon.


End file.
